Key Points

Atezolizumab plus pemetrexed-based chemotherapy resulted in improvement in progression-free survival (median 7.6 months vs 5.2 months for the control group) associated with a 40% reduction in the risk for disease progression in all patients and across key clinical subgroups.

Findings from the IMpower132 trial demonstrate that the use of the programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor atezolizumab in combination with carboplatin plus pemetrexed as first-line therapy and pemetrexed as maintenance therapy improved progression-free survival in patients with stage IV nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Vassiliki A. Papadimitrakopoulou, MD, Chief of the Section of Thoracic Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, presented these findings at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer (Abstract OA05.07).

“The findings from IMpower132 indicate that the addition of atezolizumab to a backbone of carboplatin and pemetrexed chemotherapy provides better clinical efficacy than carboplatin and pemetrexed alone,” said Dr. Papadimitrakopoulou. “By inhibiting the interaction of PD-L1 with its receptors PD-1 and B7-1, atezolizumab restores tumor-specific T-cell immunity, offering a valuable treatment option that prolongs survival for patients with stage IV nonsquamous NSCLC.”

The content in this post has not been reviewed by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Inc. (ASCO®) and does not necessarily reflect the ideas and opinions of ASCO®.